Atlanta Ballet to paint the town red with “Moulin Rouge”

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• The Atlanta Ballet’s production not only draws its look from Lautrec’s famous paintings of the Moulin Rouge, Lautrec is a character in the show itself.

It’s hard to say precisely why the Moulin Rouge—a nightclub that saw its heyday almost 120 years ago on another continent—still maintains its hold on the popular imagination. But maintain its hold it does. There have been at least six films and a book titled “Moulin Rouge” and countless other works that have taken inspiration from the famous cabaret, including the now iconic paintings by Toulouse Lautrec. Even Bugs Bunny evoked wolf whistles from Elmer Fudd when he danced the can-can, and more recently, Nicole Kidman sang her heart out and high-kicked before she coughed her blood out and kicked it in Baz Luhrman’s eye-popping, fanciful take on the Moulin Rouge in the 2001 film.

To this long list of familiar works that took inspiration from the risque Belle Epoque cabaret you can now officially add a ballet. Starting this weekend, the Atlanta Ballet will be the first American company to produce Jorden Morris’ ballet “Moulin Rouge.”